The first leg of The Gray Whale Cycle, undertaken between September and December 2019, stretched from Kodiak Island, Alaska to Los Angeles, California. The blue sections were by bike (1,747 miles), and the green sections by ferry (approximately 2,000 miles). The orange section was a very kindly offered lift by car (142 miles) to save me, and my knees, three days of hilly, inland cycling while the pink section (110 miles) was by train to follow the coastline. These mileages, calculated from Google maps for getting from A to B and not including café detours and backtracking to make another video of a caterpillar crossing the road, sum to a total of 3,999 miles.
In 2019, the gray whale migration was slightly delayed and by the time I reached LA, I was ahead of the whales and almost out of time. So, in February 2020 I returned to LA for the second leg of The Gray Whale Cycle, continuing my journey south by train (in pink, approximately 141 miles) and by bus (in brown, approximately 928 miles). Leg Two took me along the coast south from LA to San Diego, where migrating whales could now be seen from shore, and then down to the three main lagoon systems of Baja Sur: Guerrero Negro, San Ignacio and Puerto Chale, Bahia Magdalena.
The many hours, and many more miles, passed on the night buses that transported me up and down Baja were an adventure in themselves and more than worth it to wake up in my tent, pitched between desert and lagoon, ready to go searching for gray whales.
The Gray Whale Cycle 